Originally Posted by
synzero
I haven't had a Plat nearly as long as you have, but basically my attitude about it is: use it for what it's good for, and skip the rest.
First, I would never book anything except maybe FHR on amextravel.com. The horror stories of customer service disasters with them abound. The website is ridiculously bad, as you noted. Behind the scenes it is Expedia.
FHR and THC is *always* much higher than the normal price. The only reason I book FHR is to pay more for the upgrades and to use my $200 credit.
For anything else I always book direct with the hotel.
There is Platinum Travel Services which is talking to real travel agents. But they charge a fee for booking however they can often find rates better than publicly available for flights and they don't mess up bookings the way Expedia does.
The SkyClub membership is still an astoundingly great value, to me. Escape lounges are good when Centurion is not there or full.
Concierge started to go downhill when they tried to outsource it to India. Thank god that seems to have been a short lived experiment.
Return and purchase protection are the best in the business. I always buy things I may need to return, or expensive electronics, etc., with it for that reason.
Priority Pass is a joke in the US but generally nice abroad. So I use it abroad.
Emergency medical evacuation I have heard actually works.
Beyond that I try to maximize my credits and that's about it. I find the above benefits quite nice and worth the price of admission so to speak. Trying to use it for other things it doesn't do well (amextravel.com) is an exercise in futility IMO.
ok, you've confirmed just about everything i feel.
mostly, glad to hear i'm not the only human who finds the amex website the hottest of messes. it's just barbarically bad.
it would be regrettable for a public middle school website. for a wildly wealthy, multinational corporation, purporting to offer a 'premium' service over its sector competitors....... it falls so short of any kind of acceptable mark.
it's frustrating enough to make me interested in - perhaps even eager to - ditch the program.
so room upgrades. (when they happen.) a hundo or two towards a meal or spa service. and international airport lounges.
that's what we're looking at as the meaningful reasons to hold a platinum card.
(sure, return and purchase protection. that's great, but for another forum. i'm talking about travel related percs that add real value.)
these are 2.5 benefits (particularly room upgrades) that all seem to be offered by many of the premium travel cards/clubs/subscription services.
if anyone has had recent experience with one of these - say, chase, or virtuoso - and can compare one way or another to amex plat, i'd be all ears. if anyone's up for it. particularly with regards to customer service, post-1998 website, ease of booking, etc.